Quirky Community Develops The Ultimate Dog Leash: Kōsoku

Quirky, the first successful online 'social product development' company has just released its 60th product in six months. The product, which Quirky named the K?soku, "a dog leash so fly it gets a fancy schmancy Japanese name," is pretty cool, and it does seem to fit its billing of 'A new leash on life.'

K?soku by Sarah Carpenter and Quirky community

K?soku is a 6-foot retractable leash with a comfy, stylish, ergonomically-designed handle that looks far more sleek and modern that other retractable leash handles. Plus the K?soku has a neoprene cushion to protect your hand and arm from shocks - as when Fido jerks you at the end of his tether.

The blue leash has a snazzy silver 3M reflective stripe down its middle, making it safer to walk your dog at night, and the K?soku even has a side pocket to hold those necessary poop bags you always leave home without. This makes use of the entire inner space of the handle.

K?soku by Sarah Carpenter and Quirky community

K?soku by Sarah Carpenter and Quirky community

K?soku by Sarah Carpenter and Quirky community

K?soku by Sarah Carpenter and Quirky community

Sarah Carpenter was the original designer of the K?soku - she developed the original idea and submitted quite impressive designs on paper. The K?soku is now selling for $37, of which Ms. Carpenter makes $3.89, or 10.5%, per leash sold. Another $1.83, or about 5% of the sales price goes to nine other influencers, social contributors to the product who had an impact on the product's final outcome. This 5% is actually split proportionally among the nine persons according to the significance of each contribution.

If you would like to see how this design process went, here is a short video of its evolution. Who says 'design by committee' doesn't work?

Oh, and don't forget to purchase a K?soku here and be the first at your dog park with the ultimate dog leash. (Inventors: support your sister inventor!) You can see all the other amazing inventionscreated and sold by Quirky here.

Great invention. It looks so much more comfortable than ordinary leashes.

Have you seen Quirky's other products though? I'd bet that if they eliminated the $99 submission fee for ideas they'd probably get a lot more quality stuff. The idea of paying to put my ideas into the public domain makes little sense to me. After 1 year they would either need to be patented or would become part of the public domain.

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